“It’s just that he is such an attacking threat. The way Celtic play, the wide men, Patrick Roberts and Scott Sinclair, like to cut inside, so they need others to provide the width.

“Kieran does that brilliantly and he reminds me of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, who’s been the most fouled player in the Premier League for the last few years.

“That’s purely because he has the pace and the ability to go past people and, when you do that, you tend to get cleaned out. Some defenders or midfielders will do it just to discourage the attacking player but that doesn’t work with Kieran because he’s robust and he just keeps going.

He said: “I’ve been asked by a few clubs down south whether he could handle life there and I told them it would be a no-brainer.

“Tierney is good enough to play every single week for Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal. He might not do it at Manchester City with Benjamin Mendy [there] and it would probably be 50-50 at Chelsea between him and Marcos Alonso.